“And you,” Dave turned to Newman and allowed his tone to fill with even more darkness. “You want out? That is fine by me, though I doubt your lovely, fragile Katelyn would agree.”
The young man's face flashed from horror to defiance in a moment. “I swear if you hurt her, I will—”
“You will what? Magically uncover my identity? Or somehow force me to give her back? You all know how this works. Do as I say until I am done with Carthage. If you do, I will leave you the locations of your loved ones. If you don’t, they will all die. Slowly. Painfully. Abandoned.”
Newman sagged. “I get it. I get it. They were just words. I won’t do anything.”
“Of course not. Now, I need you to find me a house, similar to this one. I have here a list of supplies that you will put there. My associate,” he gestured at Amara, “will check that everything is ready. You have two weeks.”
The man seemed unable to take his eyes from the lock of hair, but he nodded all the same.
Amara stroked a finger over the lock. “Pity. I thought I was going to be able to have some fun.”
They all stared toward her at her words. Dave took the planned exit and vanished back the way he had come. Amara was to wait until they looked for him again and leave unnoticed too.
He waited only a few minutes before she joined him in the growing dark.
“You think they’ll behave?”
Dave nodded. “They will. Get back to prepping Bridgette. You have two weeks.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Jay stepped out of his jeep and tried not to look in the direction of the car that had been following him since. He would have minutes only between the point where they drove past and when a new tail from inside the police station would be informed of his arrival.
He knew that this tracking hadn’t been done carefully. Dave had obviously left this to another because he would never be so careless. Still, Jay was willing to take advantage of every mistake and loophole the man provided.
He had already spotted Joe’s man. The tiny snake beside the license plate marked him for what he was. He had parked right beside the car, and one of the dark windows slid down.
“Played any good games lately?”
“Yeah. Is the other request I made ready?”
In response, a big man stepped from the backseat of the car. He would rival Elliot in size, but his face was scarred, as were his arms where huge muscles bulged. “You Jayden Roe?”
Jay didn’t even notice when a hand carefully retrieved the cooler from the passenger seat. “Sure am. Are you Gregory?”
“I can do a nail scrape and take a print,” said the soft voice through the window.
“Good.”
“Done. Access the chapel aboard Lone Star for the results.” The box appeared in the window, and the big man placed the cooler back as if nothing happened.
“How long?”
“A day.”
“Ok. Let’s go.”
They reached the side door to the station at the same time a new tail appeared. An officer out for a smoke.
Jay fought the urge to give the man a cheery wave and cocky smile. His normal behavior was to flaunt his victories, but that was merely because he had never before had an opponent who was smart enough to catch on.
While he doubted that Dave directly spoke to any of these people, he had little doubt that their orders were to report his movements and any changes in behavior or pattern. As he had been dutifully ignoring them since their arrival, he needed to keep that up for just a little longer.
Gregory produced a breaker card of Joe’s and swiped it, immediately over-riding the rather poor security system the police building had. He watched the officer's eyes widen in alarm. He pushed off the wall just as they entered the building.
Jay moved with confidence as he had memorized the building layout.
“Dr. Daniels?” he called as they entered the lab area. “I need you to accompany us to the morgue.”
A middle-aged woman with steely blue eyes glanced up from the microscope. “And just who the hell are you?”
Jay smiled in an impatient way and moved off toward the door that he knew led to the morgue. “It wasn’t a request, Dr. Daniels. Come willingly or my friend here will carry you.”
Jane Daniels shifted her gaze from Jay to the big man to Gregory. Some of the defiant annoyance in her eyes shifted to fear then astonishment as she watched Jay open a door only a handful of people had the security clearance for.
Jay gestured to the door. “Shall we?”
She hesitated but moved with alacrity the second Gregory’s man took a step towards her.
“You need to tell me who you are,” Her tone was still hard as they entered a room lined with freezers.
Jay nearly laughed out loud at the ‘under maintenance’ sign across one wall.
Seriously? That was the bright idea to stop people finding the bodies?
“I’m the good guy,” Jay responded. “I need the help of someone with your skills, and more importantly, your moral reputation.”
She looked clearly unimpressed. “What do you want?”
“I would like an analysis on the finger in this cooler,” Jay requested, not altering his polite tone in the slightest.
Dr. Daniels looked incredulous, but said nothing, so Jay continued.
“Your department, led by your corrupt or blackmailed sheriff, had been hiding the existence of a serial killer for a year. The bodies,” his eyes flashed to the drawers that were blocked off, “are recorded upon retrieval and then stored there. All the information is logged
